The Jai Alai World Tour finished the final part of the second phase of its summer competition on September 17, 2016. The CTO Individual MPB championship final and 3rd place match were played at Bizkaia Fronton (Bilbo (Bilbao)). The entire competition was played on a short (38 meter) court, the first time this championship has been played this way. Matches were played in jokos (sets), 2 jokos to 12 points, with a tie-breaker to 5 points if necessary.
Final:
Goikoetxea defeated Olharan 2-0 (12-5, 12-11)
Full match video (match begins at 32 minutes, 51 seconds on the video. It is preceded by the 3rd place match (see below)). (Source: EITB)
Third place match:
Hormaetxea defeated Egiguren 2-0 (12-9, 12-6)
Final: Match article (Deia)
Final: Match article (JAWT)
Final: Background match article (Diario Vasco). This article also covers the semi-final results (see below).
Goikoetxea won the first joko easily. Olharan, who had been injured in the Masters Biarritz Pro Tour on September 14, but who played and won in the semi-finals of this tournament the next day, fought hard in the second joko. The scores were even at 7-7 and 11-11 before an Olharan error ended his chance at a tie-breaker. Goikoetxea thus won his 11th singles championship, equaling him with Julien Retegi (Mano) and Koteto Ezkurra (Remonte) for most career singles pelota championships.
September 15, 2016:
Semi-Finals
Olharan defeated Egiguren 2-0 (12-9, 12-6)
Goikoetxea defeated Hormaetxea 2-0 (12-7, 12-11)
Match article for both matches (JAWT)
Originally the semi-finals and finals of this tournament were to be held the last week in August. Due to injuries to Goikoetxea and Egiguren, a match was played between Hormaetxea and Olharan. That match, along with the results and match articles for the quarter finals that preceded it, was covered in the blog here.
True to their word, JAWT did reschedule the semi-finals and finals after the end of the CTO Parejas MBP finals. The originally scheduled semi-finals were played, Egiguren and Goikoetxea having recovered from their injuries.
